Dutch citizen Jos Bakker recorded the scene of a rock python strangling and eating a large hyena on the road in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, National Geographic reported on March 15.
Kay Holekamp, a zoologist at the University of Michigan, USA, said that this is a very remarkable scene, because pythons can rarely defeat and eat large and intelligent predators like hyenas.
He believes that the 4m long python ambushed and constricted the hyena before its prey could protest. Most likely, the hyena weighing about 68 kg was attacked while walking around shallow water looking for a place to rest for the afternoon. According to researchers, the giant python was also lucky because the victim could have been a male hyena looking for a new herd.
“For prey like hyenas, the python must act perfectly. If it doesn’t have time to squeeze the hyena, the victim can easily tear off the python’s head with its claws,” Holekamp said.
In fact, rock pythons are the only snakes capable of attacking and taking down hyenas. This is the largest python species in Africa. They can be up to 8 m long, weigh nearly 100 kg and are very aggressive.
According to Kenneth Krysko, senior expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, USA, in the natural environment, African rock pythons often hunt small mammals, antelopes, wild boars and a number of other animals. .
Pythons are considered voracious eaters. Striped pythons in Indonesia can take down and gradually eat lorises, sun bears and even adult Sulawesi pigs weighing 40-70 kg.